The heat rises between a man and a woman who know all too well the dangers of playing with fire in Night Smoke, a thrilling romantic Night Tales novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts. Someone has a vendetta against Fletcher Industries. Someone unafraid of torching a warehouse to ashes. Arson investigator Ryan Piasecki doesn’t know if he’s dealing with a pyromaniac or a calculating criminal targeting corporate executive Natalie Fletcher. Impatient to get back to business, Natalie finds herself at odds with Ryan’s uncompromising authority. But their impassioned disagreements only fans the flames of their desires for one another.

Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.

AVAILABLE DIGITALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME Undercover cop Ally Fletcher knows that Jonah Blackhawk is bad news, which is why she's determined not to fall for his charms while working at his nightclub. But the more Ally interacts with the charming and seductive Jonah, the more she's tempted to break her own rules. Look out for the other standalone titles in the Night Tales series: beginning with Night Shift and continuing with Night Shadow, Nightshade and Night Smoke - all now available as Ebooks for the first time. Includes a preview of Whiskey Beach, published in April 2013

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK. A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend. Two ungendered characters contest the same female body. A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied. Lauren Foley's debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women's bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.

In a virtual world everything is stupidly easy, if you choose to be alone you do not feel lonely. However with advance graphics you can feel dread or apprehension as the scenes change. When I decided to walk across the bed of a sea; stupidly easy of course; the avatar did not drown. Then I discovered the always run button with regard to other avatars, and hence ended my anxiety at being unable to operate the communicate box. I never heard from the virtual friend I had earlier made and sent second life to the waste bin after I signed off or escaped.